Archive for March, 2007

27 degrees in Shanghai

Spring has suddenly started this week. We had some warmer days already early February, but it got cold again afterwards. My internet thermometer shows that it is 27 degrees outside. Time to turn on my airconditioning for the first time this year.Too bad the warm weather won't last, this weekend it will get a bit cooler again, so no BBQ parties yet. Maybe next...
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Don't underestimate China's development

Whenever I give presentations to European or American audiences, I tell them that the Western world does not realize what is happening in China. Everything is growing so fast here, that very soon China will start overtaking them. And in some ways that has already happened. This morning I was quite surprised when I read in the Shanghai Daily that in 2006 more capital was raised in China and Hong Kong IPO's than the total of all IPO's on the NYSE, NASDAQ and American Stock Exchange. The figure...
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New pictures on Flickr

I had some problems automatically uploading my pictures to Flickr, after I was forced to switch from my early-adopter 'real' Flickr account to a Yahoo login name. But today I managed to solve it (just download the tool again... Should have done that weeks ago already instead of trying all different kinds of tricks), and I uploaded a few of the pictures from the past 4 weeks.Among others skiing in Beijing, the ice lantern festival in a gorge in Yanqing (north of Beijing), the new Olympic Stadium...
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Fuchun Resort in Hangzhou: I will never go back

Many Chinese companies that I meet make good products or deliver good services. But a lot of these companies don't understand the concept of marketing them, or dealing professionally with potential customers. This sadly not only applies to small start-ups, but sometimes even to 5-star resorts. A typical example is the upscale Fuchun Resort in Hangzhou.On Sunday I was in Hangzhou and decided to make a detour to Fuyang to take a look at the Fuchun Resort there. I had seen the resort in several...
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Media coverage

The media coverage of Tudou is increasing in Europe. Not many people know the website there yet (and because we only have a Chinese version, most will likely never here about us), but the traditional media are starting to publish more about the site.There was an article about Tudou in the Dutch magazine FEM Business about 3 weeks ago, and this week an interview with Gary and me was published in the Dutch Elsevier Magazine. Today a TV crew making programs for German stations ZDF and Deutsche...
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Flu?

Last night I got back from a week-long trip to among others Chengdu and Hangzhou. A nice trip with lots of interesting meetings, and also a bit of free time to do some sightseeing. Yesterday I suddenly did not feel too well. I was cold, my muscles were hurting and I felt very tired. The typical signs of a starting flu. But work goes on, so after a 10-hour deep sleep I managed to go to work with the help of some painkillers. I felt pretty well the whole day actually, probably because I was too...
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Chengdu trip

Not many posts over the last days, because I am in Chengdu at the moment with some business associates. I had not been to Chengdu in about 4 years, when I produced a short film about the city. At that time I already loved the city, and coming back here after all these years was not a disappointment. The city not only looks great (lots of green and a bit warmer than Shanghai), but it also feels great. It is booming, even more than Shanghai I feel.We looked at several companies over the past...
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34000 free cups of Starbucks coffee

On Friday Starbucks had its first Chinese Coffee Break, a two-hour event in which you could get a free tall cup of coffee. I had a lunch appointment at 12 and decided to drop by Starbucks a few minutes before noon to check how busy it was. I actually did not expect to see many people, but while walking to the Grand Gateway shopping center I knew I would be wrong: I met at least 20 people with a paper cup from Starbucks (normall I never see anybody with a Starbucks cup on my walk from the office...
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Mining and online video – a great combination?

ChinaTechWatch has a great column today, about a Chinese mining company Admax resources, that just changed its name to China YouTV (CYTV.OB). The firm is currently involved in mining, but wants to expand into online video, a completely unrelated line of business.This is so typical of Chinese companies, if one thing does not work they just try someting completely different. They probably heard that YouTube is a big success in the US. Well, they likely reasoned, then we should do that here too of...
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Labor scams

Today is World's Consumer Rights Day, and because of that the Shanghai Labor and Social Security published a list of the top-10 most common employment scams. Some could have happened in Europe as well, such as that the job is very different from the job description that was advertised. But others you would not often encounter there, a few examples:- If you want to get a job at a certain company, you first need to do a paid training course. The company, or at least the recruiter, earns money...
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Job opportunity: business development manager at Spill Group Asia

Shanghai-based online gaming company Spill Group Asia is looking for a business development manager. Responsibilities for this position include:- website promotion, negotiating and executing cooperation agreements (both in China and other Asian countries)- website data analysis (using tools such as Google Analytics) for our gaming sites in Asia- research on internet trends in China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia- defining strategies to grow the market share of Spill Group Asia's casual gaming...
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Living on an island in a big city…

What happens if your house is in the middle of a redevelopment zone? In China that normally means that you have bad luck. You might get some form of compensation, but you need to move out before the bulldozers come. No way around it it seems, at least most of the time. A family in Chongqing (rumoured to have good government connections) refused to accept compensation and move. The picture shows what happened: they now live on a 12 meter high cliff in one of the most densely populated cities in...
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Free Starbucks Coffee

This Thursday Starbucks will be organizing its second annual Coffee Break event. This means that from 10 AM to 12 noon you will get a free tall coffee at all Starbucks Coffee outlets in China. I have at least 3 Starbucks Coffee outlets within a 10 minute walk from my office, so I might drop by to see how many people are willing to wait in line to get a free coffee.The event will not be limited to China, but also takes place in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, the...
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Tibet mountain bike trip update

April 23 is coming closer. That day Gary and I plan to fly to Lhasa, via Chengdu, for our mountain bike trip. The idea is to ride from Lhasa to Kathmandu, a distance of over 1200 kilometers, through the Himalaya. Over the past weeks we have started our preparations, but because we are both quite busy running our companies we did not spend enough time on it yet. But things are changing quickly, we have now set the dates, determined a rough itinerary, and contacted people in Tibet to sort out the...
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Beijing Olympics tickets and hotels

I just created an account at the official Olympic ticketing website for Beijing 2008. This is possible for all Chinese and for foreigners living in China (you need to have at least a 6-months visa). The tickets are not yet available, but you can now already set up your profile there, so that you can be the first one when they start selling the tickets next month. This does not guarantee that you get tickets, though, because if events are oversold the tickets will be randomly distributed (which...
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Taihu mountainbiking

Yesterday Gary and I drove to Taihu, a huge lake (it has a 400 kilometer perimeter) close to Suzhou to do some mountain bike practicing on the hills around the lake (we rode close to Xishan). We put our bikes into Tudou's new SUV (a Hyundai Tucson), and they fit in easily. The car drove quite well, and it was nice to sit a bit higher in Shanghai's traffic, because you have a much better overview of all the people around you. Driving this car reminded me of the Jeep Cherokee (with a 4-liter,...
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Face-lift for 1bib.com website

1bib.com, the Chinese online platform for purchasing and selling cars just had a face-lift. I have been an advisor to this company for over a year now, and the company is doing very well. So far 1bib reached all its milestones and Honglian Tan has built a great team in Guangzhou. They recently launched a new website design. The new layout is refreshing, with a more dynamic style, a vivid orange colour, and a number of cool features and new technology. Features such as comparison,...
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Do not read on the toilet!

I came across this picture on Shanghaiist a couple of days ago. I was too busy to post it then, but it's so hilarious that I still want to share it with you. It was apparently taken in one of the Lotus Supermarkets in...
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Bubble Elements – Spill Group Asia's first downloadable game

Zlong Games, part of Spill Group Asia, just finished the production of its first downloadable game for Spill Group. The game, that was officially launched today, will be sold on game portals worldwide. This is a 'first' for Spill Group, until now all our downloadable games (on our portals such as gamenext.com) were produced by external companies. But making these games ourselves can be very profitable, so we decided to take over this part of the value chain as well.Bubble Elements is a...
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No electricity in the office

Today I am working from home, not because I like it but because the government decided to cut electricity in the neighbourhood where our office is located. And without internet access it is a bit difficult to run an online gaming & game development company. So the whole company got a day off, and most seem to be enjoying it because only a few colleagues are online at home (no, I am not checking on them, just noticing it :-).The good thing is that today is Woman's Day in China, and as a good...
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